It's honestly been a long time since a story has captivated me as much as the story in FFXVI. I began the game expecting a political and heavily dark fantasy, revenge-driven narrative. Instead, I left with a true shonen battle anime in video game form. Playing this game felt like watching Naruto or One Piece or something adjacent for the first time. Discovering the world and the many conflicts it is steeped in made for a really compelling opening. But what really pulls the story together are the characters, and especially Clive. Clive is surprisingly probably one of my favorite protagonists of all time, across any medium, now. Aside from the immediately likable character design, sensational voice acting performance by Ben Starr, and general coolness factor, what surprised me so much about Clive, was his compassion, kindness, softness, vulnerability, while also displaying courage, strength, fortitude, and loyalty. Really, what I'm trying to say is that Clive is the ideal man. He's standout and by far my favorite part about this game.
The other thing I truly adored about this game were the Eikon battles. I've never been interested in cutting-edge video game development or graphics. But this game really showed me why that draw can be so effective. The eikon battles were spectacles like I have never experienced before in any video game. They're extremely memorable encounters that contain so much hype, spectacle, and emotion that they will not soon be forgotten by anyone. No complaints with any of them honestly.
I think my biggest sticking point of this game is the pacing of the gameplay and sidequest structure. I think the story itself is paced very well, but the dips in exciting gameplay ultimately weakened some of the experience for me. These lulls might be fine if some of the sidequests were a bit better, but I found that as many good character and world-building sidequests there were, there were also an almost equal amount of tedious side quests which didn't really impact my knowledge of the world or the inhabitants of it.
I think the combat in this game is an interesting point of discussion because it has a high skill cap, but most players won't even try to experiment or anything with the combat because of its ease. The game never encourages you to find more creative ways to combo your Eikon abilities because it allows you to pass by just cycling through all of your skills. Regardless, I do think the combat in this game is fun when unlocking new abilities.
I think the level structure is just a bit too linear for me. Especially in the opening, honestly. when there's little-to-no freeroam options. I felt like exploration was discouraged, and I should just focused on the main questline.
Maybe I would've been more encouraged to explore had there been better rewards. But items in this game are honestly terribly boring. Only potions and super potions really matter. This also makes money basically useless as I never really used it for anything besides buying potions and super potions when I ran out.
Despite these gameplay flaws, I found the narrative and overall experience to be just a BLAST and hyper-fun. I'm so glad this was my introduction into Final Fantasy. And, honestly, if the rest of the games are as good, and even better than this one, it's very possible I will have a new favorite media franchise.
The other thing I truly adored about this game were the Eikon battles. I've never been interested in cutting-edge video game development or graphics. But this game really showed me why that draw can be so effective. The eikon battles were spectacles like I have never experienced before in any video game. They're extremely memorable encounters that contain so much hype, spectacle, and emotion that they will not soon be forgotten by anyone. No complaints with any of them honestly.
I think my biggest sticking point of this game is the pacing of the gameplay and sidequest structure. I think the story itself is paced very well, but the dips in exciting gameplay ultimately weakened some of the experience for me. These lulls might be fine if some of the sidequests were a bit better, but I found that as many good character and world-building sidequests there were, there were also an almost equal amount of tedious side quests which didn't really impact my knowledge of the world or the inhabitants of it.
I think the combat in this game is an interesting point of discussion because it has a high skill cap, but most players won't even try to experiment or anything with the combat because of its ease. The game never encourages you to find more creative ways to combo your Eikon abilities because it allows you to pass by just cycling through all of your skills. Regardless, I do think the combat in this game is fun when unlocking new abilities.
I think the level structure is just a bit too linear for me. Especially in the opening, honestly. when there's little-to-no freeroam options. I felt like exploration was discouraged, and I should just focused on the main questline.
Maybe I would've been more encouraged to explore had there been better rewards. But items in this game are honestly terribly boring. Only potions and super potions really matter. This also makes money basically useless as I never really used it for anything besides buying potions and super potions when I ran out.
Despite these gameplay flaws, I found the narrative and overall experience to be just a BLAST and hyper-fun. I'm so glad this was my introduction into Final Fantasy. And, honestly, if the rest of the games are as good, and even better than this one, it's very possible I will have a new favorite media franchise.